SpecEx celebrates $8m of trades

But re-farming is what it's all about

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Some $8m of radio spectrum has passed through the hands of SpecEx, the on-line trading floor of Spectrum Bridge, creating new uses and owners for dark spectrum.

Florida-based Spectrum Bridge's radio-frequency trading floor was launched back in September last year with a view to playing matchmaker between those who own unused US radio spectrum and those looking to expand their holding, or do something entirely new now that it's possible to buy up smaller chunks of radio at reasonable prices.

Much of the spectrum comes from the paging networks who are seeing their business disintegrate as mobile phones replace pagers, and the FCC is being very good about re-farming the spectrum to new applications. These include providing chunks of 220MHz for automated train controls as well as spectrum allowing mobile operators to expand operations.

Not that the mobile operators are short of spectrum - they still hold most of the trade-able radio frequencies in the USA, at least until the Defence Department starts to trade its holding, but much of what they hold is in the wrong place or at the wrong frequency, providing raison d'etre to SpecEx. ®